Developmental Contrastive Spelling Test

Author and Date

Purpose

The Spanish and English versions of the Developmental Contrastive Spelling Test were developed to investigate the Spanish and English spelling development of Spanish-English bilingual children with a particular emphasis on potential cross-linguistic influences. The test was developed for the research study Spelling as an Indicator of English Literacy Development, subproject 3 of Acquiring Literacy in English: Crosslinguistic, Intralinguistic, and Developmental Factors.

Age or Grade of Examinees

The assessments were developed to be used with students in grades 2 through 5.

Description

Each test consists of two types of tasks. The first section follows a traditional spelling test format. In this section, a series of real words are dictated to the children both in isolation and embedded in sentences, and the children are asked to spell these words in their entirety. The second section follows a cloze format. In this section, a series of pseudowords are dictated to the children, and children are asked to fill in the missing letters of the partially written pseudoword.

Example from Section 1 (English)

Researcher Sheet

No.

Word

Sentence

Word

A

kid

A new kid visited the school this morning.

kid

B

cats

In America most cats are indoor animals.

cats

C

ride

This year I will ride a horse at the fair.

ride

D

soap

Washing your hands with soap kills the germs.

soap

Example from Section 2 (English)

No.

Researcher says...

Child sees...

A.

lat

l______

B.

framp

fr______

C.

prishing

pr______ing

D.

flacket

____cket

Example from Section 1 (Spanish)

Researcher Sheet

No.

Word

Sentence

Word

A

amigo

Mi amigo vive en California.

amigo

B

mesa

Mi mamá pone flores sobre la mesa.

mesa

C

leo

Yo leo cuentos de niños.

leo

D

gato

Mi gato come pescado.

gato

Example from Section 2 (Spanish):

No.

Researcher says...

Child sees...

A.

tamo

ta______

B.

lacha

______cha

C.

relinta

re______ta

D.

feponi

______poni

Administration

The test is group administered by trained native speakers of Spanish and English, respectively. The assessment takes approximately 45 minutes to administer.

Scoring and Interpretation

Items are scored both at the whole-word level and at the feature level. In some cases, partial credit is awarded for items that are spelled incorrectly but constitute a logical phonological representation of the target word (i.e., ‘legal errors’), as in, for example, sead for seed or sevoya for cebolla (‘onion’). Otherwise, words and features are scored as either entirely correct or entirely incorrect.

Reliability and Validity

For the English version of the test, a reliability of .94 was obtained for the pilot version of the real words section while a reliability of .99 was obtained for the pseudowords section. Both reliability coefficients were obtained through a Rasch analysis.

For the Spanish version of the test, a reliability of .93 was obtained for the pilot version of the real words section while a reliability of .98 was obtained for the pseudowords section. Both reliability coefficients were obtained through a Rasch analysis.

Validation data are pending.

Sources

The researchers consulted the following resources in the development of the English and Spanish versions of the test:

Availability

The Developmental Contrastive Spelling Test is available from the Center for Applied Linguistics. To request a copy, complete and submit the Application Form for Use of ALE Researcher-developed Assessment Instruments, available in Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF format.

Citation

Researchers using the Developmental Contrastive Spelling Test should cite it as follows: